U.S. pushes to revitalize NATO, but dispute persists with key ally Germany

[Boats]

U.S. pushes to revitalize NATO, but dispute persists with key ally Germany
By: John Vandiver - Stars Stripes News - 03-23-21
Re: https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/...rmany-1.666931

STUTTGART, Germany — Germany’s plan to open a new gas pipeline with Russia poses a threat to European security, America’s top diplomat warned Tuesday, highlighting a key point of contention with allies even as Washington aims to revitalize ties with NATO that were strained during the Trump administration.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he expected to bring up Berlin’s subsea Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Moscow during high-level talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where the 30 member states are meeting for two days of discussions.

President Joe Biden “believes the pipeline line is a bad idea. Bad for Europe, bad for the United States,” Blinken said during brief opening remarks in Brussels. “Ultimately, it’s in contradiction to the European Union’s own energy security goals. It has the potential to undermine the interests of Ukraine, Poland, a number of other close partners or allies.”

Opposition to the nearly complete Nord Stream 2 project, a pipeline that runs 760 miles from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, puts the Biden administration in line with the Trump administration’s previous position.

But the dispute with Germany also complicates Biden’s push to establish a more unified front among NATO allies. Blinken said if the project comes to fruition, Washington would be required by U.S. law to impose sanctions on companies involved in the energy venture, which would likely affect numerous German businesses.

Still, allies in Brussels this week are talking up how the arrival of Biden bodes well for NATO, which former President Donald Trump often complained was more beneficial to Europe than to the United States.

“There is no way to hide over the last few years we have had difficult discussions in our alliance,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.

With Biden in the White House, “we have now a unique opportunity to start a new chapter in the trans-Atlantic relationship,” Stoltenberg said. “And I strongly welcome the Biden administration’s message on rebuilding alliances and strengthening NATO.”

In Brussels this week, allies are expected to develop plans to adapt NATO over the next decade, with a focus on dealing with a rising China and n assertive Russia. The aim is to ready the new strategy for heads of state to approve during a summit later this year.

NATO also is working on plans to better factor the effects of climate change into allied military planning, Stoltenberg said.

Allies on Tuesday and Wednesday were expected to endorse a report that would have members look for ways to reduce emissions during military operations, while also assessing the effects of climate change on military infrastructure.

“Climate change is a crisis multiplier,” Stoltenberg said. “Climate change is making the world a more dangerous place. And therefore it matters for NATO.”

The mission in Afghanistan and the feasibility of pulling allied forces out of that country by May 1 was also on the agenda. No final decisions on the way forward were expected to materialize during conference in Brussels.

“Last week, President Biden noted that it would be tough to meet the May 1 deadline for a full withdrawal, but whatever the United States ends up doing will be informed by the thinking of our NATO allies, which I’ll take back with me after these conversations and consultations,” Blinken said.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personal note: Pulling away from NATO will cost us dearly. America is soon to be an island of its own in the world. Why we all can't work together around the world - seems to a failure in part by all those given to make it so. We've lost the leverage we once had to show promise and the ability to show other Nations how to succeed. I know many have said in the past who needs NATO - well we - the world does. The more considerations shared amongst our allies - and partners - the better off the world will be. Strong arm technic's don't work anymore. Other countries have seen the US weakness in many areas of world. And now we have our own internal issues within our lands which sends signals to the world leaders - look the US can't handle its own political and internal issues any longer.
-
The world is getting smaller - and the US will become isolated from much of it - as others seek to set the new standards of the world order. Russia - China - North Korea seem more unified than the U.S. allies of late. Erosion of the mindset and lost of leverage around the world will impact the growth of those nations in flux.
-
As a natural born Citizen of U.S. for the past 75 years - I have seen turmoil increase within the mindset of our Country & it's Leadership. The People are at odds with one-another daily. Congress is so divided on party lines - nothing gets done. Whatever path they are on is not improving our internal issues or our international ones - it only raises them!
-
I'm not sure I like the split between the two houses. They are all American's who say they are working the best issues of their party! NOT THE PEOPLE as a whole. You may as well call it Segregation! A divided Nation will FALL! It's leaning that way every year. If it's not the North its the South or its the East against the West. Where in the hell un UNITY!
-
That's the question!
-
As for the open door Border I'm not happy! I've sent my feeling my Senator!

a. Cut the border immigration to a 1000 per month (max).
b. Entree's must have U.S. Sponsor's to get in! And meet them at the crossing!
c. Also no Covid Shot's "you don't get in!" See how easy that is!
d, Also their Sponsor's must be U.S. Citizen's and held fully responsible for those they take in!
-
Now that's as simple as I can make it. It also used to be they had to have special trade before they could enter our country.
-
Boats

ps: I've not heard back from our Senator's in office - I may never hear from them?

[Boats]

‘We have NATO’: 21st-century coalitions emerge as Russia and China align against US allies
By: Joes Gehrke - Foreign Affairs Reporter - Washington Examiner News - 03-23-21
Re: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...inst-us-allies

Transatlantic unity holds the key to managing threats from both Russia and China, according to NATO’s civilian chief.

“As long as we stand together, we can deal with both a rising China and an assertive and aggressive Russia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday alongside U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “That’s exactly the reason why we have NATO.”

Stoltenberg’s comments signal a heightening consciousness among American allies that the U.S. rivalry with China could require European powers to reorient their foreign policies. And a similar sensibility is emerging in Beijing. Just as the NATO allies prepare for an in-person convocation, Chinese officials hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss their own potential alignment against Western powers.

“We share the opinion that Russian-Chinese foreign policy interaction remains a vital factor in global affairs,” Lavrov said Tuesday following a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “We pointed out the destructive character of U.S. aspiration to undermine the U.N.-centric international legal framework by using the military-political alliances of the Cold War period and creating similar closed alliances.”

'YOUR GOD IS XI JINPING': UIGHURS MOCKED AND TORTURED IN CHINESE INTERNMENT CAMPS FOR THEIR FAITH

Stoltenberg has touted the potential for European allies to strengthen their respective relationships with the United States in recent years. However, that was often complicated by former President Donald Trump and his "America first" governing style.

Those overtures culminated in NATO's adoption of a statement identifying China as a source of "challenges" to the Western alliance bloc, an unprecedented declaration that Trump hailed as a diplomatic triumph at the 2019 NATO Leaders Meeting in the United Kingdom.

“So, for [the] United States to have NATO means that they have something no other big power has, and that’s ... 29 friends and allies,” Stoltenberg reiterated Tuesday. “So we need to demonstrate that we continue to provide our core responsibility, collective defense, security for all our allies, and then I’m very optimistic that we’ll also be able to deal with differences also in the future.”

Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s lieutenants have aired a frank rejection of U.S. and European claims to uphold international law, an argument made more explicit as Western allies rebuke Beijing for subjecting Uyghur Muslims to atrocities in Xinjiang.

“The United States itself does not represent international public opinion, and neither does the Western world,” Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi told Blinken last week during a meeting in Alaska. “So we hope that when talking about universal values or international public opinion on the part of the United States, we hope the U.S. side will think about whether it feels reassured in saying those things because the U.S. does not represent the world.”

Lavrov’s counterpart fumed about a new battery of transatlantic sanctions on the Chinese officials overseeing the abuse of Uyghur Muslims. “[Western powers] should know that the days when they can arbitrarily interfere in China’s internal affairs by making up stories and lies are long gone,” Wang said.

Blinken joined Stoltenberg in touting NATO’s potential to counter this emerging Chinese posture.

“We will stand resolutely against Russian aggression and other actions that try to undermine our alliance, and I think that approach is exactly where NATO is as well,” Blinken said. “And similarly, we have to and we will, I believe, make sure that NATO is also focused on some of the challenges that China poses to the rules-based international order.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Similar discussions:

The United States and European allies blacklisted Chinese officials involved in the repression of Uyghur Muslims in a cascade of sanctions announcements, breaking the seal on Western willingness to confront Beijing’s human rights abuses.

“Chinese authorities will continue to face consequences as long as atrocities occur in Xinjiang,” the U.S. Treasury Department’s Andrea Gacki, who leads the office of foreign assets control, said Monday.

Gacki’s branding of two Chinese government officials “in connection with serious human rights abuses” in Xinjiang province built on previous U.S. sanctions, but the parallel announcements from the United Kingdom and the European Union generated transatlantic punch. The concerted effort could portend a more united Western front against Chinese Communist human rights abuses and increased friction between European allies and Beijing, where outraged Chinese diplomats unveiled retaliatory sanctions on European lawmakers and foreign policy analysts.

“The Chinese side urges the EU side to reflect on itself, face squarely the severity of its mistake and redress it,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced. "It must stop lecturing others on human rights and interfering in their internal affairs. It must end the hypocritical practice of double standards and stop going further down the wrong path. Otherwise, China will resolutely make further reactions.”

Canada, just weeks after lawmakers in Ottawa voted that China's repression of the Uyghurs amounts to genocide, joined the chorus Monday with their own sanctions.

“We remain deeply concerned by the egregious human rights violations that are taking place in Xinjiang at the hands of the Chinese state," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said Monday. "Today, we are joining our partners in calling on the Government of China to put an end to this systematic campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities and to hold those responsible to account.”

The tandem announcements are an early display of President Biden’s ability to coordinate with European allies who detested former President Donald Trump. “It was easy to say ‘no’ to Donald Trump, but it‘s now getting harder,” a European diplomat conceded to the South China Morning Post. “Will the EU go fully confrontational? It is unlikely. We don’t see it as black-and-white.”

Even under Biden, “there will not be one united front on all issues” with the U.S. on China, as a senior EU official emphasized last week to an American audience.

“We have a multifaceted approach towards China, which consists of the capacity to cooperate and negotiate good deals — yes, including investment deals,” European External Action Service’s Gunnar Wiegand, the lead official for Asia and the Pacific in the EU diplomatic service, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week. "I see that the new U.S. administration talks about ‘extreme competition.’ We don't use that term, but we recognize that there is also some form of global competition, particularly in the technology area.”

In the same breath, Wiegand’s statement that the EU would enforce “red lines” regarding “human rights and fundamental freedoms” foreshadowed the news Monday. The new sanctions target only four Chinese officials responsible for the Uyghur Muslim repression, but the measures mark the first such sanctions by European powers on China since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

The controversy could foster additional unity between the U.S. and European allies, to the delight of China hawks in Washington.

“It’s a toe in the water — and it’s a big toe in the water,” the Heritage Foundation’s2 said of the European measures. “And then there were Chinese counter sanctions. So, this is cool.”

"The United States will continue to play a strong leadership role in global efforts to combat serious human rights abuse in Xinjiang and around the world through the Global Magnitsky sanctions program," the Treasury Department bulletin emphasized. "Complementary actions using these global human rights sanctions regimes enable like-minded partners to form a unified front to identify, promote accountability for, and disrupt access to the international financial system by those who abuse human rights."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another NATO Link: NATO affirms unity, tries to put Trump era behind it
By: Associated Press & UK Daily Mail - 03-23-21
Re: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...-era-them.html
(You may be interested in reading as well) Boats
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personal note: You must play straight hardball with China in order for them to comprehend that this is no game - and that anyone who practices abuse of human rights is unacceptable to the world order and will not be tolerated.
-
Boats